An exploration of pizza in and around Rochester, NY, one pizzeria at a time

Monday, December 20, 2010

Gifts for the Pizza Lover

We're down to crunch time here, but if you've still got shopping to do for the pizza lover in your life (who may be you), consider:
1) a pizza stone - great for homemade pizza with a crisp crust. Rectangular is better than round. You can also use unglazed quarry tiles, which will save you some money, though a baking stone probably makes a nicer gift
2) a pizza cutter - comes in handy even for takeout, which is sometimes not cut cleanly through
3) chef's hat and apron - great for getting in the spirit of things when you're making pizza
4) a pizza peel - I have two, a wooden one for sliding the pizza into the oven and a metal one for getting it out. But either alone would work fine.
5) an insulated pizza bag, like the ones the delivery people use - good for takeout, especially if the pizzeria is some distance from your home
6) a pizza cookbook. There are a lot of good ones, but my standby is American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza by Peter Reinhart. He's got several dough recipes for everything from traditional Neapolitan pizza to New York style to generic American pizza.
7) and of course, a gift certificate to your giftee's favorite pizzeria. You can't go wrong with that.

Ratings Guide

A: great; one of the best this area has to offerB: pretty good; not top-notch, but definitely good, and better than averageC: OK; nothing special, but it’ll do; typical for our areaD: edible; if you’ve already paid for it, you might as well eat itF: downright bad; toss it and get something else